How to Setup MukurtuCMS on Ubuntu Linux with Nginx

Mukurtu (MOOK-oo-too) CMS is based on Drupal and aims to empower communities to manage, share and exchange content in an ethically minded way. It is managed by Washington State University’s Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation.

If you’re looking for a Drupal based Content Management System (CMS) that is easy to install, simple to maintain and extensible, then MukurtuCMS is a good place to start.

This CMS platform is designed for ease of use to allow webmasters to collaborate and automate engaging experiences with users across multiple devices, including mobile.

For more about MukurtuCMS, please check their Homepage

This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install MukurtuCMS on Ubuntu 16.04 / 18.10 and 18.04 LTS.

To get started with installing MukurtuCMS, follow the steps below:

Install Nginx HTTP Server

MukurtuCMS requires a web server and Nginx HTTP server is probably the second most popular open source web server available today. To install Nginx server, run the commands below:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

After installing Nginx, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable Nginx service to always start up with the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop nginx.service
sudo systemctl start nginx.service
sudo systemctl enable nginx.service

Now that Nginx is installed. to test whether the web server is working, open your browser and browse to the URL below.

If you see the page above, then Nginx is successfully installed.

Install MariaDB Database Server

MukurtuCMS also requires a database server to store its content. If you’re looking for a truly open source database server, then MariaDB is a great place to start. To install MariaDB run the commands below:

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots.

Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

sudo systemctl stop mysql.service
sudo systemctl start mysql.service
sudo systemctl enable mysql.service

Run these on Ubuntu 18.10 and 18.04 LTS

sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

Next, run the commands below to secure the database server with a root password if you were not prompted to do so during the installation.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

• Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
• Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
• New password: Enter password
• Re-enter new password: Repeat password
• Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
• Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
• Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y
• Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

Now that MariaDB is installed, to test whether the database server was successfully installed, run the commands below.

sudo mysql -u root -p

type the root password when prompted.

If you see a similar screen as shown above, then the server was successfully installed.

Install PHP 7.2-FPM and Related Modules

MukurtuCMS is a PHP based CMS and PHP is required. However, PHP 7.2-FPM may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. To run PHP 7.2-FPM on Ubuntu 16.04 and previous, you may need to run the commands below:

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2-FPM

sudo apt update

Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2-FPM and related modules.

sudo apt install php7.2-fpm php7.2-common php7.2-mysql php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-gd php7.2-bcmath php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip

After installing PHP 7.2-FPM, run the commands below to open PHP default configuration file for Nginx.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini

The lines below is a good settings for most PHP based CMS. Update the configuration file with these and save.

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
short_open_tag = On
memory_limit = 256M
cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0
upload_max_filesize = 100M
max_execution_time = 360
date.timezone = America/Chicago

Everytime you make changes to PHP configuration file, you should also restart Nginx web server. To do so, run the commands below:

sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Now that PHP is installed, to test whether it’s functioning, create a test file called phpinfo.php in Nginx default root directory. ( /var/www/html/)

sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php

Then type the content below and save the file.

<?php phpinfo( ); ?>

Next, open your browser and browse to the server’s hostname or IP address followed by phpinfo.php

/phpinfo.php

You should see PHP default test page.

Create MukurtuCMS Database

Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required for MukurtuCMS to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create a blank MukurtuCMS database.

To logon to MariaDB database server, run the commands below.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called mukurtucms

CREATE DATABASE mukurtucms;

Create a database user called mukurtucmsuser with a new password

CREATE USER 'mukurtucmsuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';

Then grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON mukurtucms.* TO 'mukurtucmsuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download MukurtuCMS Latest Release

To get MukurtuCMS latest release you may want to use Github repository. Install git tool to download MukurtuCMS packages..

sudo apt install git

After installing curl and Composer above, change into the Nginx root directory and download MukurtuCMS packages from Github.

cd /var/www/html
sudo git clone 

Run the commands below to configure MukurtuCMS database settings.

sudo cp /var/www/html/mukurtucms/sites/default/default.settings.php /var/www/html/mukurtucms/sites/default/settings.php
sudo nano /var/www/html/mukurtucms/sites/default/settings.php

Near the bottom is the $databases array. At minimum, you will need to fill out ‘database‘, ‘username‘, and ‘password‘ to connect to the database you just created.

### mukurtu values to fill

$databases = array (
  'default' =>
  array (
    'default' =>
    array (
      'database' => 'mukurtucms',
      'username' => 'mukurtucmsuser',
      'password' => 'password_here',
      'host' => 'localhost',
      'port' => '',
      'driver' => 'mysql',
      'prefix' => '',
    ),
  ),
);

Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for MukurtuCMS root directory and give Nginx control.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/mukurtucms/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/mukurtucms/

Step 6: Configure Nginx

Finally, configure Apahce2 site configuration file for MukurtuCMS. This file will control how users access WebsiteBaker content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called mukurtucms

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/mukurtucms

Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your own domain name and directory root location.

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    root /var/www/html/mukurtucms;
    index  index.php index.html index.htm;
    server_name  example.com www.example.com;

    location / {
    try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string;        
    }

    location @rewrite {
               rewrite ^/(.*)$ /index.php?q=$1;
        }

    location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
         include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
         fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
         fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
         include fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ~ ^/sites/.*/files/styles/ {
               try_files $uri @rewrite;
        }

    location ~ ^(/[a-z\-]+)?/system/files/ {
        try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string;
        }
}

Save the file and exit.

Enable the MukurtuCMS Site

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mukurtucms /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see MukurtuCMS setup wizard to complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.

Then follow the on-screen instruction. Choose the installation language, Save and continue

Then script should complete the installation and allow you to create an admin account.

After that, Mukurtu CMS should be ready to use

Enjoy~

Congratulation! You have successfully installed MukurtuCMS on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 and 18.10.

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